A BRIDGETOWN resident has warned locals to read the fine print on their insurance policies following the recent bushfires.
Trevor Woodward's property was hit by the 2003 Boxing Day fire, which was started when a tree on state government owned land was touched by Western Power lines.
It took six years for the WA Insurance Commission to complete $3.6 million in payouts to 54 cases, however many argued they received inadequate payments.
Mr Woodward was one of them.
"If you're honest with the Insurance companies they can use any information against you," Mr Woodward said.
"They found me vulnerable with anxiety and stress and cheated me. I fought them for years."
Mr Woodward warns all property owners to read as much of the fine print as possible within their insurances, especially when it comes to bushfire cover.
The recent fires brought back the trauma of not only defending his home and property against the Boxing Day fire but also the even more exhausting tussle with the insurers.
"They are not out to help people," he said. "I did not receive a fair amount of funds to repair damage to the house, to its stumps and other parts.
"My property is now the only significant value, not the house.
"You have to make sure that what you estimate at the time as an agreed value is appreciated to market values."
Mr Woodward said it doesn't matter what politicians promise on behalf of affected people and property owners in natural disasters.
"The then government promised everyone would be helped all the way and the insurers broke [former] Premier Geoff Gallop's promises."
Mr Woodward said the stress over so many years of anguish, letter writing, phone calls and meetings which included drives to Perth, had taken a toll on him as damaging as the irreparable damage on his house.
Mr Woodward is a Vietnam war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder from a variety of combat related stressors.
At the time of his anguish in trying to come to some justice with the insurers his psychiatrist confirmed that his mental health had been deteriorating during the material compensation avoidance by the insurers.
Mr Woodward approached one parliamentarian after another, but received little more than just letters of acknowledgment and never kept promises.
"I believe in honesty but apparently not everybody else does," he said.
"The insurers looked at how to adjust the estimate in loss in damages to suit them, and that is disgusting.
"At the time when the fire arrived I owned this house only two years.
"There was no damage when I bought it. Now I have lived in this house with external and internal damage to it for a decade.
"The type of stress the insurers caused me, and by their agents, I should have had them up on assault charges."
The Donnybrook-Bridgetown Mail contacted the WA Insurance Commission and discussed Mr Woodward's case with an appropriate representative.
The spokeswoman was not able to shed any light on his insurance claim and that it had been a number of years ago.
At the time of print, the spokeswoman said she would try to look further into it.
